New York Knicks | Pace and Space

The New York Knicks Worst Season: 2015

October 8, 2022 - by Fox Doucette

The New York Knicks have twice in the past eight seasons gone 17-65, the only two times in franchise history they have failed to win 20 games. This is impressive because in the Knicks’ second year in the league, the Basketball Association of America played just 48 games. New York was, however, good back then. The Knicks made the playoffs in each of their first eight seasons and the NBA Finals three times. Granted, they lost all three (1951-53), but still. It’s the effort that counts even in a small league. The 2015 Knicks were not that. Neither were the …

Analysis

The New York Knicks’ Best Season: 1970

October 9, 2021 - by Fox Doucette

The New York Knicks are in the present era of NBA history regarded as a joke of a franchise, a waste of a good media market with one of the worst owners in sports in James Dolan. But once upon a time, Madison Square Garden played host to a team that went to three NBA Finals in four years, captured four titles, and not only had four Hall of Fame players on the roster but had another guy who later went on to become a Hall of Fame coach. The 1970 Knicks not only won the franchise’s first championship in …

Is He Any Good

Bernard King: Was He Any Good?

August 13, 2020 - by Fox Doucette

If you grew up in the ’80s and forgot Bernard King existed after his knee injury in 1985 basically wiped out what was left of his career, welcome to my childhood. As is so often the case in this twice-weekly affair, we’re looking at the statistical footprint of a guy who is in the Hall of Fame even though he couldn’t stay on the floor, flashes of former glory (and one magical season with the Bullets in 1991 at age 34 followed by what was essentially a career-ending injury a year later) leaving just enough of that “he was great, …

Editorial

Achtung Panzer! #4: The Tanking New York Knicks

December 7, 2019 - by Fox Doucette - 1 Comment

The New York Knicks, owners of the worst record in the NBA through games of December 6 (and as this goes to press currently trailing the Pacers) at 4-18, just took that “things have officially gone too far” step and fired coach David Fizdale. Which means a team on pace to win just 15 games has franchise upheaval just as they’re starting to try to bring along promising rookie RJ Barrett, and if that isn’t the most Knicks thing you can imagine, just wait until interim coach Mike Miller slowly loses his mind having to salvage something from this dumpster …

2020 Preview

Are the 2019-20 New York Knicks Good?

September 10, 2019 - by Fox Doucette

Welcome back to the NBA, folks! It’s season preview time, and every weekday between now and the start of the season, we’ll be taking a look one at a time at all 30 teams east to west and worst to first by division and asking and answering one simple question: Is this team any good? We start by rendering the title absurd and asking about the New York Knicks. This is a team that went 17-65 last year and got pantsed by the Basketball Gods at the draft lottery, ending up with Duke’s RJ Barrett instead of the dreamed-about and …

Analysis

NBA Best And Worst Contracts Part I: Atlantic Division

August 19, 2019 - by Fox Doucette

We have talked extensively on the subject of Wiggins Factor, a formula designed to relate NBA salary to Win Shares on a per-minute basis and determine which players provide the most bang for the buck in terms of powering good teams to titles…or, by contrast, the players who are such a waste of money that every minute they’re on the floor all they do is bring your team closer to the draft lottery. But now it’s time to pull all the data together from across the league and give all those raw numbers some context. Over the next six days, …

Highlights

Breakfast Special: Silly College, March is for Pros

March 18, 2019March 18, 2019 - by Fox Doucette

The talk on most of basketball Twitter yesterday turned from the NBA to college, as everyone’s a bracketologist om Selection Sunday. And besides my alma mater Nevada getting in as a 7 seed (and apparently 26th overall by the NCAA’s gimcrack math), that’s all I have to say about college ball until the draft. The NBA was too busy giving us amazing matchups, like… Did the Sixers Just Make a Finals Case? Philadelphia beat Milwaukee on the road 130-125. Imagine a world where either the Pacers pull off a major miracle and finish third or else Boston gets hot down …

Highlights

Breakfast Special: Brad Stevens on the Hot Seat

February 27, 2019 - by Fox Doucette

It’s full on Panic Time in Boston, as the Celtics got destroyed on the road by the Toronto Raptors 118-95. The chemistry is breaking down between the Celtics players, Kyrie Irving looks miserable in a Boston uniform, the fans are starting to call for the head of coach Brad Stevens (yes, this is because fans in general tend to be idiots, but Brad Freaking Stevens? If you don’t want him, Pacers fans would ditch Nate McMillan for him in a heartbeat)…and oh by the way, the actual basketball team just got destroyed by a potential second-round playoff opponent. Zach Lowe …

Highlights

Breakfast Special: Better Than the Oscars

February 25, 2019 - by Fox Doucette

If the Academy Awards taught us anything last night, it’s that there’s nothing Hollywood loves more than performative wokeness in the service of its own racism. But this is a basketball column, so I’m not going to rant about “Green Book” winning Best Picture, instead choosing to rant about the NBA sticking us with three games that were anything but Oscar bait. But on the other hand… The Knicks Are an Ed Wood Jr. Movie New York beat San Antonio because they can’t even tank right (or San Antonio is a disaster on the road, take your pick.) Earlier this …

Highlights

Breakfast Special: Limping into the Break

February 15, 2019 - by Fox Doucette

There were three games in the NBA Thursday night, and from the looks of them, the players on some of those teams were already dreaming of wherever it is they’re spending All-Star week, whether it’s at some travel destination, at the game itself, or just home with their families getting healthy and enjoying a brief respite from the long grind of the NBA season. The net result of all this was that we got some real stinker games. Like… Charlotte Fixes a Problem There are two ways you can fix the problem of having a positive point differential and a …